


Memories Of Dust [HACKING]

by 4wholecats



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: F/M, Minimal Nier Knowledge required, Nier Automata Spoilers, android body horror, hope you kids like flashbacks, nier automata au, past camus/nyna that could either be platonic or romantic its reader's choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-03-06 08:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13407231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4wholecats/pseuds/4wholecats
Summary: When YorHa Scanner Unit Tatiana digs an android out of a sand dune by mistake, what is she to do but keep him?(Fire Emblem Echoes Nier Automata Au)





	1. City Ruins

****

_ “Ma’am, I regret to inform you that your family estate has been attacked by machine lifeforms.” _

 

_ “Machines? O-oh my… What of my parents? Are they alright? Are they hurt?” _

 

_ “I am sorry. We looked for signs of life, but we could not find them. We are sorry for your loss.” _

 

_ “Gods, I-I should have been there… I could have… I-I…” _

 

_ “There is nothing you could have done. The attack was unexpected and YoRHa was not prepared for a strike on a city that far inland.” _

 

_ “Wh-What do I do th-then? Where do I go…” _

 

_ “YorHa command sent me to escort you to a shuttle. You are not safe here anymore and the moon colony is now fully operational.” _

 

_ “I… see. I see. Allow me to get ready; I won’t be very long…” _

 

_ “Of course. Bring only what is absolutely necessary though, we have to travel on foot.” _

 

_ “Why?” _

 

_ “There have been an increased amount of attacks on aircrafts in the last few days. We are trying to safely relocate as many people as possible since the machines’ numbers are growing faster than what we have seen before.” _

 

_ “Okay. I’ll get ready… ah… what is your name again?” _

 

_ “I am YorHa combat android C2.” _

 

_ “You don’t have a name?” _

 

_ “I do not need a name” _

 

_ “O-oh. Well I’ll just call you C2 then. My name is Nyna.” _

 

_ “It’s a pleasure ma’am.” _

 

“This is Operator to 7S. Come in 7S”

 

Tatiana shakes some of the sand from her hair and comes to a stumbling halt on top of a sand dune as the call comes in. 

 

“7S here! What’s up?” She asks, watching her companion slowly approach from her perch upon the sand mountain, wind whipping through her artificial hair. 

 

“How goes the big mission?” Forsyth sounds as cheerful as ever, and Tatiana can hear him clicking away on his keyboard rapidly.

 

“Pretty okay all things considered! We ran into a few small machine clusters but we took good care of them. It’s kinda weird though; most of them were wearing what looked like some sort of clothing? Got any info on that?”

 

“Clothing? Like… pants?”

 

“No more like just ratty old fabric draped over their heads. A lot of them had patterns painted on them as well.”

 

“Hmm… My data says that it’s possible that they might be mimicking some old human cultures from the area, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you why. Either way, I’ll make a note of it. I’m sending the coordinates of the increased machine activity right now. Make sure to contact command if anything crazy happens.”

 

“I know, I know! I’ll be extra careful! It’s not like I’m charging headlong into the enemy alone after all.” Forsyth snorts unprofessionally and the keyboard clicking subsides a bit.

 

“I’d hope not! Alright, good luck out there! And tell Zeke I say hi! Operator, out.”

 

The transmission ended and Tatiana is left alone to watch her companion climb the final slope of sand between them. He looks grumpy. Then again, he always looks a bit grumpy.

 

“How’s the walk treating you?” Tatiana beams. Zeke grumbles something under his breath before marching past her defiantly. Hiding a giggle behind her hand, Tatiana hops down next to him and glides over the sand with ease, her light scanner frame allowing her to move swiftly over it, leaving small dust clouds in her wake. It’s not her fault that he’s too heavy to glide after all.

 

“Forsyth says hi by the way!”

 

_ “Our destination is about two weeks away on foot, Ma’am.” _

 

_ “That far? Will we make it in time? I don’t want the shuttle to leave before we can get there… I don’t want them to forget about me...” _

 

_ “They will wait as long as they can afford to. There are dignitaries traveling from farther away that will probably get there after you, so you have nothing to worry about.” _

 

_ “How can we be sure they don’t lose track of us? It’s very… empty out here; if we were to get in serious trouble...”  _

 

_ “I have been tasked with your protection Miss Nyna. I can assure you that no harm will come to you while you are in my care. We combat units are programmed to handle even the most major of threats effectively and efficiently.” _

 

_ “But what if?” _

 

_ “What if what?” _

 

_ “What if there is an emergency and you can’t get to me for whatever reason?” _

 

_ “If my black box signal is lost, another YorHa combat unit will arrive to protect you.” _

 

_ “What should I do though? To survive until then? I can’t fight… I can’t-” _

 

_ “Please miss Nyna. I can assure you that I have been given instructions for even the most dire circumstances. You will make it to the shuttle safely, I promise you.” _

 

_ “O-Okay, yeah, you’re right. You’re the one with the plans, I trust you. There’s no need for senseless worrying. I trust you.” _

 

_ “Good. Onwards then?” _

 

“What is that?” Tatiana asks, mouth agape at the sudden change of landscape. Sand gives way to concrete as massive buildings stick out of the dunes; monolithic and pale. 

 

“This area was once known as a ‘housing complex’. Humans lived here in groups,” her Pod helpfully supplies as the small group wander their way between the buildings. Beside her, Zeke shakes the sand out of his clothes, still evidently unhappy with being left to walk across the entire desert alone.

 

“I’m sorry for leaving you behind,” Tatiana said falling into step next to him. “I’ll walk with you on the way back! Promise!”

 

“You don’t need to wait behind for me. I can get back to the camp now that I know where we are. It’s when you leave me alone in unfamiliar territory that’s infuriating.”

 

“The desert isn’t that bad! It’s just sand! Just keep going until you find something that’s not sand!”

 

“Says the one with a map. Do I have to remind you what happened last time I was in the desert alone?”

 

“Excuses, excuses,” Tatiana waves her hand dismissively, moving ahead to lead them towards the coordinates Forsyth gave, “besides, you know you’ve hit your limit on spare parts!” 

 

The coordinates lead to a spot deep in the city, and quite possibly underground. The city is to empty and so quiet that all they hear is the crunching of sand and rubble beneath their feet. Tatiana eyes a dilapidated swing set for a second before moving on. This is not the time for play, no matter how curious she is. The androids walk together for a while and exchange remarks about the surrounding environment before a small machine stumbles into view.

 

“RUN..! RUN..! RUN..!” It yelps in it’s mechanical voice before catching sight of them. “NO..! NOT THIS WAY..!” It turns on around and bolts back in the direction it came from. Tatiana and Zeke exchange a look before breaking into a run, chasing after the small robot.

 

_ “Miss Nyna, I must warn you that I have received information from command that may disrupt our plan. There is a large machine presence in our path and we have to go around it. It will take more time, but if we move quickly we can still get you to the shuttle.” _

 

_ “Around it?” _

 

_ “Yes. I could probably take care of it if I was alone, but there is a high chance it will deliberately go after you, should we encounter it.” _

 

_ “...How long will it take us to go around?” _

 

_ “An extra week ma’am.” _

 

_ “But the shuttle leaves then! Please C2! I don’t want to be left behind! Can’t we at least try to get across the way we planned?” _

 

_ “It’s too risky; I must insist-” _

 

_ “No! I’d rather die at the claws of some giant metal monster than be stuck here alone… oh God… I can’t be alone…” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Please… I don’t want to be alone anymore…” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Please…” _

 

_ “Fine. We will go the original route. But you must cooperate with my orders if you are to survive.” _

 

_ “Of course.. Thank you C2...” _

 

“This place is a dump,” Tatiana stands, hands on her hips, staring around what was once a probably bustling intersection. Metal sign poles stand twisted and warped around her, embedded in chunks of concrete at her feet. The small machine had escaped them, but Tatiana could guess well enough where it was going. Zeke holds out his hand to her and she hops down from the hood of an abandoned car that she had made into a vantage point. 

 

They walk for about twenty minutes, stopping at access points along the way. Tatiana scans around and finds some old warped metal that might be worth something back at camp, but other than that, they just follow the path that was sent to them, keeping a close eye out for machines. 

 

Finally, they arrive at their destination. It’s quite literally a hole in the ground, and Tatiana steps aside as Zeke, the ever dutiful guardian, climbs down first. As they descend, they encounter more machines wearing strange clothes. All of them are easily dispatchable, and Zeke clears the way for his small scanner partner easily.

 

“How do you think they pick the words?” Tatiana asks and they worm their way through a particularly claustrophobic stretch of cave. Zeke hates both tight spaces and sand, so he continues to grimace, not answering her question outside of a grunt. Combat units, especially very old, much-bigger-than-the-modern-standard combat units are not cut out for spelunking.

 

“It’s just strange how machines can say stuff, you know? Like, where did they learn it? Those ones in the desert were talking about fear, remember? One of them was like ‘ANDROIDS… SCARY…!’ but how do they know to say that?” She continues.

 

“I don’t know, are there records of talking machines in the bunker server?.”

 

“None at all! We only encountered talking machines for the first time a little while ago, so it’s possible they are evolving much quicker than command thought they would. To be honest I’m surprised they are even capable of learning like that!” 

 

“I wouldn’t put too much faith in what they say, Tatiana. It’s all just mimicry of what they hear. There’s no real emotion behind it. They can’t ‘fear’ like humans or androids can.”

 

“I don’t know about that… I think you might have beat the concept of fear into a few of them back there,” Tatiana says, smiling and nudging Zeke’s side a little. 

 

_ “Unit C2 to Operator. Come in Operator.” _

_ “Operator here.” _

 

_ “Patch me through to Command. I require assistance.” _

 

_ “One moment please” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Command here. Is something wrong?” _

 

_ “Not yet, but I’d like to prematurely request the use of a flight unit. One of the human-safe ones.” _

 

_ “Do you anticipate trouble?” _

 

_ “Miss Nyna is refusing to take the alternate path because she is afraid of missing her opportunity to get on the shuttle.” _

 

_ “An unfortunately valid thing to worry about. The shuttle leaves very close to your estimated time of arrival. And the next one won’t leave for several weeks.” _

 

_ “Exactly. We are going ahead with the original plan, but I’d like backup just in case.” _

 

_ “Understood. However, we must warn you that the machine presence in the desert that blocks your path has grown more powerful since our last correspondence. It will be difficult to destroy it on your own. This may be a goliath class lifeform.” _

 

_ “I will distract it while Nyna goes ahead in the flight unit. I will make sure nothing happens to her. Can you arrange for someone to meet her in the safe zone?”  _

 

_ “I can have backup there in two days. After she makes it safely to her destination, I will send them back to look for you.” _

 

_ “That may not be necessary, but thank you regardless.” _

 

“What are they doing?” Tatiana asks, confusion and possibly disgust painted on her delicate face. 

 

“I honestly have absolutely no idea.”

 

The bottom of the tunnel is cavernous and full of light. The walls are made of crumbled buildings that had collapsed into this sinkhole. Sand falls from the ground level like small waterfalls down onto the debris and chaos below. 

 

Scattered around them are many machines, all acting… strangely. One rocks an ancient cradle, another carries a smaller one on it’s back like a parent holding a child, and two more mimic actions that make Tatiana’s synthetic skin blush. There must have been thirty machines, no, forty, in this place. Each one was acting erratically, completely ignoring the androids standing in their midst. Zeke reaches behind him and grasps the handle of his weapon, a wicked looking lance.

 

“It doesn’t matter though. We have to destroy them.” 

 

He lunges forward, slicing one of the machines cleanly in half. Around them, the rest of the robots turn on the androids. Zeke leads the charge, carving through them like they were made of butter. Tatiana appreciates the technology that goes into the modern combat androids in order to make them agile and powerful, but there is really no arguing with pure brute strength. What was the human saying? ‘They don’t make them like this anymore’? Something like that. 

 

In a single graceful movement, Tatiana flings her own sword from behind her back spin it through the air, slicing her targets in its path. She focuses on the larger machines and dives into the hacking interface, destroying them from the inside out and causing disturbance in their ranks. The lobotomized machines click and groan, exploding into chunks of hot metal and half-melted components.

 

Together, they clear the area in almost no time, but after only a moment of silence more machines, mostly smaller stubby ones, take the places of their fallen brethren. 

 

“Where are they all coming from?” Tatiana huffs as more machines appear from seemingly out of nowhere. She and Zeke stand back to back, weapons brandished in front of them as they swing at their opponents.

 

Zeke grunts as one of the larger machines swats at him, firing projectiles their way. Tatiana grabs the back of his coat and shoves him out of her way before hacking in. This machine is more complex than the others, and it takes her a minute to get rid of all the cores, but she jumps back at just the last second before the thing explodes. The machine crushes a few smaller ones under its body as it falls, but that does nothing to deter them. 

 

“Perhaps we should think about retreating.” Zeke says, pulling his lance out of an enemy’s decapitated head. 

 

“Good idea!” Tatiana jumps up and starts to run towards the exit when a sudden shift in atmosphere causes both androids to turn around.

 

“Oh wait? What are they-?” Around them, gears grind to a halt as the machines freeze in their tracks one by one. For a split second, there is deafening silence, but then…

 

“THIS CANNOT CONTINUE! THIS CANNOT CONTINUE! THIS CANNOT CONTINUE!” 

 

_ “Ah. Miss Nyna please stop right there.” _

 

_ “Why? Oh! What’s this?” _

 

_ “This is a YoRHa issue flight unit. Please watch your step. It will take you the rest of the way to the shuttle. Make sure all of these clasps stay locked while you are in transit.” _

 

_ “It’s just like wearing a seatbelt… Well, kinda…” _

 

_ “I wouldn’t know, Ma’am.” _

 

_ “Wait… There’s only one flight unit? How will you get to the shuttle?”  _

 

_ “I will go through with the original plan and make sure no machines on the ground get in your way. Once you make it through the dangerous zone, two YorHa combat units will accompany you for the remainder of your journey. I will remain behind and deal with the threat.” _

 

_ “You’re staying behind?” _

 

_ “Yes. I will be fine. You have no reason to worry.” _

 

_ “I don’t know if I believe that but… I guess you know more than me about fighting… If you do get to the shuttle before it leaves, you’ll come say goodbye, right?” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “C2?” _

 

_ “We are out of time. The flight unit will automatically take you to your destination. Please cooperate with the other androids.” _

 

_ “A-Alright. Alright. Thank you, C2.” _

 

_ “It was a pleasure, Ma’am. Glory to mankind.” _

 

_ “Glory... to mankind. Goodbye.” _

 

“Ah! What’s going on?” 

 

The screaming machines turn away from the two androids and begin crawling up the walls like spiders. They clamber up to the metal scaffolding near the top of the chasm, bunching together and forming a single mass of metal. There is silence again as Zeke and Tatiana stare up at the cocoon of metal, weapons still drawn.

 

The mass cracks open. From inside comes a blinding light that makes Zeke turn away and Tatiana squint though her blindfold. Then, with a wet sound and a dull thud, something large falls to the floor a few feet away from the two androids. When the dust clears…

 

“Oh! Zeke, it’s an android!”

 

“That’s not an android, it’s a machine.”

 

“A machine? But it looks like a human?” 

 

The machine does look like a human. It’s got dark hair and eyes, and smooth, unblemished synthetic skin. It twitches on the ground, blinking and clicking before attempting to stand. It’s clumsy and slow, grappling for purchase on the soft sandy ground. Once it finally gets to its feet it hunches over, staring at the two androids, clearly analyzing them. Zeke steadies his lance and positions his feet in a combat stance as the machine begins to walk unsteadily towards them. 

 

“I don’t like this, Tatiana.”

 

“Me neither. I’ve never seen or heard of a humanoid machine before.”

 

“Let’s destroy it and contact command. Maybe they will know what do about… this,” Zeke says, waving vaguely in the direction of the humanoid, as well as the bodies of the machines they had destroyed earlier. 

 

“Excellent plan.” Tatiana raises her sword as well and begins hacking as Zeke dashes forward again.

 

_ “This is command to C2. Come in C2.” _

 

_ “C2 here. Flight unit received. Nyna is enroute to her destination.” _

 

_ “Affirmative. Are you engaging the enemy?” _

 

_ “I will be very soon. I am approaching the machine lifeform’s signal as we speak.” _

 

_ “Be careful out there. We don’t want to lose more soldiers than we have to.” _

 

_ “Of course. All is going well so far, but in order to distract the machine presence I will have to take a detour into the desert. I hope that it will follow me. Machines are not designed to operate well on sand, so I will have the advantage.” _

 

_ “Command won’t be able to track you very well in the desert. If you wish to continue with this plan, please understand we will not be able to intercept or respond to any of your emergency transmissions.” _

 

_ “Understood.” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Thank you for your service, C2. Glory to mankind.” _

 

_ “Glory to mankind.” _

 

“Tatiana! Now!” The machine stumbles and Zeke dashes forward and plunges his weapon into it’s back. It gargles for a second before Tatiana’s sword goes through it’s front, staining all three of them red with artificial blood. It shudders and makes one last gasping noise before falling; slipping on the pool of its own blood with a wet smack. For a second, the two androids can do nothing but stand there and stare as the environment finally quiets around them.

 

“That was weird.” Tatiana says blankly, blinking owlishly under her blindfold. Zeke sighs and wipes his lance off on his sleeve.

 

“We should probably take the body back to the camp for analysis. Command will want to know about… whatever this is.”

 

“Good plan, but I’m not carrying it,” Tatiana says, analyzing the best way out of the sinkhole. Zeke stares at her, unamused for a moment, before moving forward to pick up the corpse. Tatiana is probably too small to carry something this big anyways, but now he gets to be covered in blood and sand; what a  _ joy _ .

 

Then, the body twitches and a light bursts out of it’s chest. The light takes shape and almost looks like… a hand?

 

_ “Forsyth, all I’m saying is that if you keep doing all that dumb stuff with Python on your time off, you’re never gonna be allowed to come down to Earth.” _

 

_ “I know, I know. I don’t even know how he convinces me to do these things! He’s gotta be, like, hacking me in my sleep or something.” _

 

_ “He’s to lazy for that. You just get so excited about stuff that you can’t tell whether it’s good or bad till it’s already done. At least no one got hurt this time, right?” _

 

_ “I guess.” _

 

_ “No one DID get hurt, right Forsyth?” _

 

_ “R-Right! I promise!” _

 

_ “Well that’s good. I don’t know w-whoah!” _

 

_ “Tatiana? What’s wrong?” _

 

_ “Ugh... Nothing I just tripped over something buried in the sand here…” _

 

_ “How did YorHa even manage to make a ground unit this clumsy?” _

 

_ “Wait, Forsyth! My scanner’s picking something up!” _

 

_ “‘Something’ meaning…?” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Tatiana? You didn’t get eaten by machines did you?” _

 

_ “Hold on a sec Forsyth I’m- Oh!” _

 

_ “Tatiana? You good?” _

 

_ “O-oh my.” _

 

_ “Tatiana?” _

 

_ “...Forsyth, I think I just tripped over a dead body.” _

 

_ “Gross.” _

 

_ “No… Wait… My Pod is picking something up… Forsyth! I don’t think this android is dead!” _

 

“What’s that?!” 

 

Tatiana gasps as something distinctly human-shaped crawls it’s way out of the chest of the fallen machine. It gets to its feet and takes one long, shuddering breath before a loud, piercing scream rings through the air. Both androids stumble back as the Earth shakes around them, rubble and sand falling to the ground.

 

“We have to get out of here before this place collapses!” Zeke yells to Tatiana over the uproar. 

 

She nods and they both dash back up the piles of rubble to their escape route. They barely make it before a massive piece of rock falls and seals the entrance, trapping the mysterious machines inside. 

 

“We have to report this to Command.” 

 

Tatiana says before lightly getting to her feet and starting towards the cave exit. Zeke, the ever dutiful guardian, brings up the rear, just in case the humanoid machines decide to pursue them. 

 

They step back out into the desert after long, and after Tatiana contacts Command, she walks through the desert with Zeke; no gliding or sliding, just walking. She gets dust in her boots, but Zeke doesn’t look like he’s about to bury himself in the sand again, so she takes what she can get. 

 

_ “Where am I?” _

 

_ “You’re awake! Thank goodness. I thought you were dead for sure. I found you in the desert a while back… but I didn’t get all the parts to fix you back up until just recently! A lot of that old stuff is really hard to come by nowadays. Not to mention the actual repair work, I mean I’m a scanner, so I’m built for repairs but still! You were in about a hundred pieces when we got you back here!” _

 

_ “Who are you?” _

 

_ “I am YorHa scanner unit 7S, but most of my friends just call me Tatiana! I’m one of the units Command sent down to keep in contact with the resistance camp. Oh, that’s where we are by the way. If you need something fixed, I’m your gal! What’s your name?” _

 

_ “I… My name is… I don’t think I have one.” _

 

_ “No name? Well, I suppose that’s not too uncommon for YorHa units, most of us with names just kinda pick one out for ourselves I guess… What’s your model number?” _

 

_ “I don’t remember…” _

 

_ “O-Oh. Well that’s probably not good. A little bit expected, but still not good… Your hard-drives were completely fried when I found you. The good news is that you have all new ones; thankfully they integrated pretty okay with what you have going on… But I couldn’t salvage that much off the old ones. I still have them! Here, do you want them?” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “It might be possible to get more off of them at some point, it’s just that I have limited resources at the resistance camp and I can’t bring them up to the bunker without a flight unit, and that’s not happening ‘till every other YorHa android keels over and dies and I’m Command’s last hope. I’m sorry I couldn’t get more for you.” _

 

_ “It’s alright. You have evidently done a lot for me.” _

 

_ “Ahaha well, I wasn’t just gonna leave you in the middle of the desert for another billion years… To be a little honest, I would have brought you back regardless; you’re the oldest YorHa model I’ve ever seen! It’s always so cool to work with the ancient stuff...” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Not that that’s a bad thing! Wisdom comes with age and all, though I guess that doesn't really apply since… you can’t remember… anything… Oh goodness, I’ll stop talking, I’m sorry.” _

 

_ “It’s fine.” _

 

_ “Once this war is over, we’ll get you up to the bunker and get those memories back!” _

 

_ “War? The war against the machines?” _

 

_ “Yes! You fought machines, right? You look like the combat type.” _

 

_ “Perhaps… How long has this war been going on?” _

 

_ “Longer than I’ve been around, that’s for sure. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, maybe even more! I’ve estimated based on gathered data that you might be from a time just after the start of the war. It’s strange to see how much the technology has changed! Androids sure have gotten a lot smaller, but then again, we’re mass produced so resource efficiency is important… Small means less material… I’d love to do some tests at some point if you’re up to it!” _

 

_ “Of course.” _

 

_ “You’re very formal, you know that? You don’t have to act so uptight here; everyone is super relaxed! I might be wearing a uniform but I’m sure you can tell by now I’m no stickler for professionalism… Oh! That reminds me! I got some clothes for you! I had a YoRHa uniform sent down with the last resupply transport, but we can get you other stuff if you want! No need to wear a stuffy uniform if you don’t want to!” _

 

_ “Thank you very much, 7S.” _

 

_ “Like I told you, it’s Tatiana! No one calls me 7S unless they’re being recorded for posterity. _

 

_ “Then thank you, Miss Tatiana.” _

 

_ “Why don’t I give you a name? I can’t just go around yelling ‘hey you’ every time I want to grab your attention, right? Hmmmmm… There’s so many good ones to pick from… Do you have a preference?” _

 

_ “No. I will be happy with whatever you give me.” _

 

_ “Alright! How about… Sirius? Nah… Xander?… No that’s too stuffy. How about something foreign? Like, I don’t know… Reinhardt? Eldigan?” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “You’re right, those are dumb too. It needs to be something simple I think. Short and sweet. How about… Zeke? Well, Zeke for short, Ezekiel for… long… What do you think?” _

 

_ “If that is what you want, I would be happy to take that name.” _

 

_ “Oh really? Good! Not every android gets a name, so you’re a lucky guy! Tomorrow I can show you around the camp, but for now, you should rest. You’ve still got a lot of exposed wiring in there that I have to fix before you fry yourself again, not to mention things like walking calibration. Can’t have you keeling over in the middle of the woods after all.” _

 

_ “Woods?” _

 

_ “Well, once you’re better, you’re gonna be my bodyguard! I’ll get you all cleared at Command, so when you’re back on your feet we can do missions together. I know you can’t access the bunker, but if you stay with me, I can keep helping you out in any way I can!” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “Why the face?” _

 

_ “Why are you being so nice to me? What am I to you but a stranger? Another android to waste supplies on?” _

 

_ “I wasn’t aware kindness needed an explanation beyond itself. When someone is in trouble, you help them. That’s common decency. And from the moment I saw you, I know I couldn’t leave you…” _

 

_ “What?” _

 

_ “W-Well, you were broken. And all alone out there…” _

 

_ “...” _

 

_ “I’m here to help you! And I mean it. So lean on me and let me be your crutch for as long as it takes.” _

 

_ “Thank you… Miss Tatiana.” _

 

_ “It’s a pleasure, Zeke.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont look at me


	2. Significance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A deeper dive into some of the chapter one flashbacks.

Tatiana begins to dig. All she has are her bare hands, but it doesn’t take long to unearth the foreign object beneath the sand. 

 

_ “Tatiana! How do you know it’s still alive?” _ Forsyth’s voice is in her ears again.

 

“I don’t know, I just… I think my scanner picked it up as a hackable interface? I’m… still digging… hold on…”

 

The arm she tripped over is freed from the sand, but it looks like the rest of the body might be buried a little bit deeper. Tatiana continues to claw away furiously, but to no avail as more sand just takes its place. She tugs at the exposed arm a little only to be greeted by the sound of groaning metal. 

 

“It’s no use, I need a shovel or something…”

 

_ “Go back to camp, they’ll probably have something that can help you! Maybe get a cart too, just so it’s easier to get back when all’s said and done.” _

 

“Good idea! Pod, mark this location on the map please.”

 

Tatiana stands back up, watching as the wind blows the sand back over the uncovered arm.

 

“I’ll be right back, just hold on a little longer!”

 

The camp isn’t really that far away, just an hour or two, so she packs up and heads over, hoping that the buried android doesn’t get attacked by any machines while she is gone. 

 

It’s not hard to find the leader. Conrad’s distinctive red hair pops out to her from across the clearing of merchant’s tents as soon as she arrives, and she approaches him with ease. The other android notices her and waves, a smile on his young face. Youthful though he may be, Conrad is a able leader for the resistance and a good fighter as well, despite not being YoRHa made. 

 

“Tatiana! I didn’t expect to see you back so soon!” He says as soon as she’s close enough to hear him.

 

“Conrad! I’m sorry to drop in like this so suddenly but… can I borrow a shovel?”

 

“You know you’re always welcome here Tatiana! And of course you can borrow whatever you like. Going treasure hunting?” Conrad says, motioning another android to go fetch the tool in question.

 

“Something like that. Has anyone from the resistance gone missing lately? I found an android in the desert. It’s alive, but it’s buried pretty deep under the sand.”

 

“Missing android? Oh gods, um, I don’t think so? Yeah, I think everyone here is accounted for. Do you need help? I can send a few androids to assist you!”

 

“That would be awesome, actually. I don’t think I can safely escort another android all the way back here without risk of being attacked, especially if it’s injured…”

 

Conrad’s subordinate returns with the shovel, handing it to Tatiana. She thanks him as he goes back to whatever he was doing over at one one of the dirty server towers nearby. Printing records of the latest machine attacks by the look of it. 

 

“Let me go ask some people if they wanna tag along, and um… let me get a cart to, just in case.” 

 

“Oh a cart! Yes please that would be very much appreciated; thank you so much Conrad, I know this is a lot to ask!”

 

Conrad smiles at her as he waves over a few more androids.

 

“It’s not a problem Tatiana, it’s only right to help other people that are in a bind.”

 

She leaves camp just a few moments later with two other androids and a wooden cart that was probably used to haul food before the war. It would surely be big enough for one or two androids if need be.

 

Thankfully, the spot she had marked before is still clear of machine activity. Tatiana gets to work almost immediately, but not before ordering her two companions to scout out the area for enemy ambushes. As they take their spots at the tops of some sand dunes a few meters away, she gets on her knees and begins to dig around with her hands again. 

 

She feels around in the sand for a bit before brushing up against something buried there. A hand? With a little more digging she unearths the same arm from before, turning it over in her own hands. It’s pretty banged up, by the looks of it. Most of the artificial skin below the wrist is torn off, and there are parts of it’s palm that are so worn down that she can see glinting metal though the old material. The forearm is dented too and Tatiana sighs to herself as she realizes, this isn’t gonna be as easy as she had hoped. 

 

She carefully creeps her hand beneath the sand, feeling around for a shoulder. She finds it and grabs onto the android’s clothes. 

 

“Hey!” she shouts over to one of the other androids.

 

“Can you get the shovel? I found it and I’m afraid if I let go it’ll get buried again.”

 

“Oh yeah of course!” 

 

The other android gets the shovel from the cart and Tatiana carefully feels around for a safe place to start digging. It would be unfortunate if the shovel caused more damage just because they didn’t know a leg was there. It’s a slow process, but soon she can see a shoulder, and maybe some hair.

 

“I’m gonna see if I can reach around to it’s other arm and pull it out okay? Make sure I don’t fall.”

 

She crawls her hand over to the other side of the android’s back, motioning for her helper to dig there. Soon, she can very clearly see a humanoid form, face down in the sand. It, or rather he, she finds, is too big for her to drag herself, so she and her helper trade places. It takes a bit, but they get him in top of the sand, and Tatiana finally sees the full extent of the damage.

 

The first thing she notices is his clothes. They are black and white, clearly YoRHa made. This brings her some relief. If he’s YoRHa, then he’s probably backed up on the bunker server somewhere. Perhaps he’s already fine, out there in a new body. But something doesn’t sit right with her, so she keeps digging. 

 

One of his arms is gone; crushed by the looks of it. She delicately moves to his other side to better inspect the damage. The shoulder joint squeaks as she angles the stump up towards her and at this angle she can see that the entire thing is badly rusted. Rust? On an android? Androids were built to be durable and long-lasting, so rust wasn’t ever an issue. How old was he?

 

Tatiana turns his head a little to get a good look at his face. Like the rest of him, it’s scratched and dirty, and she can see that one of his eyes is missing, and the plates around the socket are dented. She pats his other cheek and hisses in sympathetic pain before moving on to assess the rest of the damage. 

 

There are burns all over his abdomen, but luckily it doesn’t look like too much sand got into anything vital. There is one vicious looking puncture wound in his chest that she eyes warily, but there is nothing to be done about that at the moment. The metal in his legs looks like it’s been splintered, as if hit with a tremendous amount of force.

 

Overall, the diagnosis is… not great.

 

“Okay… Well at least he’s mostly in one piece,” she says, mostly to herself. 

 

“I’m gonna try to hack in, see if I can find out what happened here. Go back and make sure we don’t get surprised attacked, okay?” Tatiana asks her companion, who nods and retreats back to their vantage point. 

 

“Oh gods please let this work.”

 

She begins the hacking process. It’s difficult to hack an android, she’s found. They are far more complex than even the most advanced machine. In order to get past basic stuff, like audio and visual input, you have to be pretty damn good at your job. But Tatiana is a scanner, and she knows exactly what this android is gonna throw at her. 

 

Or rather, what he should have thrown at her. The defences are pitifully weak, relatively speaking. It’s like hacking into any random machine. The targets are open, the paths are easy, and strangest of all, there is no automatic lockout if she takes too much time. It’s a ghost town, and that scares her. It takes her a few minutes to navigate from the basic settings to the more important stuff, but when she gets there, what she finds isn’t pretty. 

 

She can see data nodes, lots of them. This isn’t a bad thing, every android stores information like this. The bad part is that many of them are damaged or corrupted. The system is on emergency lockdown, and she can’t access anything. 

 

“It looks like… he overheated,” she mumbles to herself, “but why?”

 

The desert itself was hot, for sure, but not hot enough to cause an android to self destruct like this. Even the older models would be outfitted with some sort of heavy duty cooling system to protect against the elements.

 

“Let me try this,” she mumbles into the void, requesting the use of the command console.

 

It takes a few minutes for the window to pop up, but once it does she requests a list of all the functioning nodes. It’s a pitifully small amount, but it will have to do. 

 

“Okay… show me a log of what happened,” she requests, waiting for the other android’s processor to respond. He isn’t conscious in any way, but processor and the log almost made it feel like he is, with their nervous energy and flickering windows. The log itself seems to be of whatever information it could gather before the android had shut down, and it is as much of a mess as its owner is. 

 

[LOG DATE 11-3-4--32-3444444444444444444 **44444444444444** **_4444444444444444_ ** ]

 

[errorerrorerror **machine lifeform** class goliathgoliathgoliath _HEGEL_ HEGELHE-----EEE-----EGEL error: low power pleaserelocate to a a a a a a a aERROR unit 2222 **222** to _opppppppppppppperrrr_ \---- goliath goliath hegel **DANGER** overheating can cause damage to to to to to _helpmeplease_ command signal los t t t t errorDANGER H E G E L   _n_yna..._ ]

 

The android’s fried processor spits her out almost immediately, and just like that, whatever little power remained in the other android’s body sputters and dies. Tatiana’s mechanical heart skips a beat as the hacking interface fades away. She calls to her helpers, who are still vigilant as ever. 

 

“Help me get him on the cart! He’s out of power; we need to bring him back to camp so I can take a good look at him!”

 

They carefully lift him onto the cart and Tatiana picks up any pieces that fall off of him on the way. She considers going back and looking for that missing arm, but something tells her that wouldn’t be much use. She sits in the back of the cart with him as they go back to camp.

 

“Tatiana! Who is it? Did you find someone?” Conrad asks, descending upon them pretty much as soon as they get back inside the camp.

 

“U-uh, yeah! We found someone, do you recognize him?” She says, turning the android’s head towards the resistance leader.

 

Conrad studies him for a second before shaking his head and stepping back.

 

“No I’ve never seen him before. Do you know what model he is? He looks like YoRHa to me.”

 

“Yeah I think he might be one of ours too, but unfortunately a lot of information got corrupted when he was doing… whatever it was he was doing out there in the desert. I’m gonna try and get him fixed up as best I can… after I rest a little....”

 

Tatiana crashes as soon as she gets her patient settled on the other bed in her small room. Androids can’t sleep in the way humans can, but she does turn off all higher brain function for a good few hours in order to just relax. She has a lot of work ahead of her. 

 

She “wakes up” to the sound of someone knocking on her door.

 

“One second, I’m coming lemme just-” She stumbles her way out of bed and over to the door, processes blinking online one after another, bringing her back to full awareness. When she opens it, one of the resistance members greets her on the other side, with a large metal contraption at his feet. 

 

“I was told to bring this generator here, something about someone needing an emergency power supply?”

 

Oh right. The other android.

 

“Yes! Yes please, thank you so much!” Tatiana says as the man brings it inside.

 

“You can put it right under the table by that bed over there,”she says, already pulling the required wires out from her workstation shelves. 

 

The man puts down the generator and slides it under her desk like she asked. He then gets up and makes a low whistling sound, looking at the damage on the accompanying bed. 

 

“Damn. That makes me hurt just lookin’ at him. Are you sure you’re gonna be able to fix all that?”

 

“Well, I’m gonna try at least…”

 

“Good luck from all of us, cause without you we probably would have just let him go if we found him out there.”

 

“Thanks, I’ll need all the luck I can get,” She signs as the man leaves, closing the door behind him. 

 

She grimaces down at the generator, and begins hooking up the wires. The man’s clothes will have to go, she decides. Since they are too burned and ripped to be salvageable, Tatiana grabs a pair of scissors from a nearby box and gets to work. Most of the skin from the shoulders down is gone anyways, so that just leaves Tatiana with a lot of rusted metal. It gives easily, and she finds his power supply unit thankfully undamaged.

 

The generator whirs to life below the desk and a little orange light appears on the side of the power unit, telling her that it is indeed working. She gets started setting up screens on the top of the desk as the little light goes from orange to yellow to green. Good enough for now.

 

She starts with the most important part, the hard drive. It’s a small one, compared to the one she has, but then again, he’s old, and technology has moved on. She carefully removes it and plugs it into her own personal computer. Her diagnostic program tells her that most of it is exactly as it was last time; fried and unusable. She pulls a spare, clean drive out of her bag and transfers as much as she can (which isn’t much) before putting the new drive back in the man’s chest. 

 

The fuel filter is next. It’s slightly dislodged and there are holes in it’s mesh. The whole fuel system is full of sand, which explains why he overheated. She empties the system and replaces the filter with a sturdier model.

 

Two parts down, several hundred to go.

 

It takes her almost seven months, when everything is said and done. Most of the spare parts she has on hand work, but some of them are too modern to fit into the man’s interface correctly, so she spends almost all the money she has on “vintage” parts. She takes on extra jobs from other androids in the camp in exchange metal parts that won’t rust and joints that won’t splinter.  Almost every hour of her day she spends in front of her computer, testing parts and trying to crack that damned hard drive, but to no avail. 

 

She holds his hand a lot too, but she’s not entirely sure why. She’s seen human movies so she knows she importance of a good bedside manner, but it shouldn’t really apply to this situation. It makes her feel better though, so she does it anyways. 

 

Eventually, once all the parts are back in and all the limbs are reattached, Tatiana feels like it would be cruel to wait any longer. He’s still opened up on her table, most of his skin missing, not to mention clothes, but his brain is hypothetically operational. 

 

She lifts all the programs she has in place to keep him from waking up one afternoon a few days later. She waits… and she waits… but  nothing happens. She opens the diagnostics again, looking for problems. What was going on? Nothing was keeping him from waking up, so why was he still acting like a dead lump of metal?

 

There’s no problems to be found, as far as Tatiana can see. He’s just… resting.

 

“Okay, yeah I guess…” she says, flicking her screen, which blinks in response.

 

It’s another week before there’s any change. She comes back from another invigorating afternoon of scrounging around the ruined city for parts to find the man exactly where she found him, but with open eyes, searching her room. He looks at her blankly as Tatiana stands in the doorway dumbly staring back at him.

 

She did it.

 

It worked.

 

“Gods!” 

 

She practically throws her things on the other bed as dashes across the room; slamming the door behind her. The man recoils slightly at her loud voice, expression going from blank to confusion. Tatiana slams down onto the chair next to the bed and grabs onto one of his hands, which twitches. 

 

The man considers her hands on his for a second before moving to sit up. His movements are slow and staggering, and Tatiana gently grabs onto his forearms to steady him. Once he’s properly upright, he begins to investigate all of the wires still poking out of his many components. Tatiana worries he might begin pulling them out, but he just runs his hand along the tops of them, gathering data on his current situation; beginning to fill that empty hard drive.

 

He looks around her room too, eyes finally settling on her. 

 

“Where am I?”

 

Tatiana can’t help but smile in relief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have -4 ideas of how computers work so i am Sorry if i've made a mockery of the field of robotics


End file.
